Notes And Queries Issue 42

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Title: Notes & Queries, No. 42, Saturday, August 17, 1850
A Medium Of Inter-Communication For Literary Men, Artists,
Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc.

Author: Various

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Language: English

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NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY

MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

No. 42.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1850
Price Threepence.

Stamped Edition 4d.

CONTENTS.

NOTES:—
Page

Alfred's Orosius, by Dr. Bell
177

Remarkable Proposition concerning Ireland, by H. Kersley
179

News: a few "old" Materials for its Elucidation, by S.W. Singer
180

Folk Lore:—Charming for Warts
181

Minor Notes:—Capture of Henry VI.—The New Temple
181

QUERIES:—
Essays of certain Paradoxes: Poem on Nothing, by S.W. Singer
182

Minor Queries:—Papers of Perjury—Church Rates—St. Thomas of Lancaster's Accomplices—Prelates of
France—Lord Chancellor's Oath—Mediæval Nomenclature—Sir Christopher Sibthorp—Alarm
182

REPLIES:—
Shakspeare's Use of "Delighted," by Samuel Hickson
183

English Comedians in Germany
184

Achilles and the Tortoise
185

Replies to Minor Queries:—"Barum" and "Sarum"—Countess of Desmond—Michael Servetus, alias Reves—
Caxton's Printing-office—Somagia—Various Modes of Interment among the Ancients—Guy's Porridge-pot
—"Welcome the coming, speed the parting Guest"—"A Chrysostom to smoothe his Band in"—William of
Wykeham—Dutch Language—"A Frog he would," &c.—City Sanitary Laws—Sanitary Laws of other Days—
Michael Scott, the Wizard—Clerical Costume—The Curfew—Welsh Language—Armenian Language—North
Sides of Churchyards unconsecrated—"Sir Hilary charged at Agincourt"—Unicorn—Abbey of St. Wandrille,
Normandy, &c.

186

MISCELLANEOUS:—
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c.
191

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Books and Odd Volumes Wanted
191

Notices to Correspondents
191

Advertisements
191

NOTES

ALFRED'S OROSIUS.

The two exceedingly valuable elucidations which the geography of King Alfred relating to Germany (intercalated in the
royal author's translation of Orosius), has received from your learned contributors MR. R.T. HAMPSON (Vol. i., p.
257.) and MR. S.W. SINGER (Vol. i., p. 313.) induce me to offer some new views on the same subject. From my
having passed a long series of years in the countries described, and read and examined all that continental authors, as
well as Englishmen, have written or conjectured on the subject, I trust that my opinions, though differing from all hitherto
received, may not be unworthy the attention of these gentlemen, and of your other numerous subscribers. I shall,
however, at present, not to exceed the necessary limitation of your articles, restrict myself to a consideration of the very
disputed Cwenas and the Cwen-sae, which both the gentlemen have not alluded to.

The universal agreement amongst the commentators (with the two solitary exceptions I shall hereafter mention), by
which this sea is taken for the White Sea, is diverting, and has been the primary source of many of their errors, and of
that most monster one, by which Othere's narrative has been made the relation of a voyage round the North Cape to
Archangel. It is difficult to say who may have first broached the brilliant idea. Spelmann's annotators, his alumni
Oxonienses of University College, seem to have left the matter without much consideration, in which they were pretty
servilely followed by Bussæus, though not so much so as to justify Professor Ingram's remark, "that his notes were
chiefly extracted thence." (Pref. viii.) Professor Murray of Göttingen (1765), and Langebeck, in his Scriptores Rerum
Danicarum (1773), make no mention of these arctic discoveries; and the latter is satisfied that the Cwenas are the
Amazons of Adam of Bremen:—

"De Quenorum priscis Sedibus et Quenlandiæ situ, vide Torfæus, Hist. Norweg. i. 140. Adamus
Bremens, pp. 58, 59. 61., per Amazones et terram Foeminarum voluit Queuones et Quenladiam intelligi."

and it remains, therefore, to the next commentator, John Reinhold Forster (the companion navigator with Sir Joseph
Banks), to have been the first to whom we owe the important error. He was praised by Daines Barrington, for whose
edition he gave the notes afterwards reproduced in his Northern Voyages of Discovery; but still with certain
reservations. The honourable translator found some negative evidences which seemed to militate against the idea that
the voyage could have extended into the arctic circle; for, in such a case, Othere would hardly have refrained from
mentioning the perpetual day of those regions; the northern lights, which he must have experienced; to which we add,
the perpetual snows, and many other very striking peculiarities, so new and seemingly inexplicable to a southern
traveller or listener.

Succeeding writers seem to have had fewer scruples, and to have admitted the idea without consideration. Thorkelin,
the Dane, (when in England to copy out the poem of Beowulf for publication at Copenhagen), gave a very flattering
testimony to Forster's notes, in Bibliotheca Topographica, vol. ix. p. 891. et seq., though I believe he subsequently
much modified it. Our own writers who had to remark upon the subject, Sharon Turner, and Wheaton, in his History of
the Northmen, may be excused from concurring in an opinion in which they had only a verbal interest. Professor
Ingram, in his translation of Othere's Voyage (Oxford, 1807, 4to. p. 96. note), gives the following rather singular
deduction for the appellation: Quenland was the land of the Amazons; the Amazons were fair and white-faced,
therefore Cwen-Sae the White Sea, as Forster had deduced it: and so, having satisfied himself with this kind of Sorites,
follows pretty closely in Forster's wake. But that continental writers, who took up the investigation avowedly as
indispensable to the earliest history of their native countries, should have given their concurrence and approval so easily,
I must confess, astonishes me.

Dahlman, whilst Professor of History at Kiel, felt himself called upon by his situation to edit and explain this work to his
countrymen more detailedly than previously, and at vol. ii. p. 405. of the work cited by Mr. Singer gives all Alfred's
original notices. I shall at present only mention his interpretation of Quen Sae, which he translates Weltmeer; making it
equivalent to the previous Garseeg or Oceanus. He mentions the reasonings of Rask and Porthan, of Abo, the two
exceptions to the general opinion (which I shall subsequently notice), without following, on this point, what they had
previously so much more clearly explained. The best account of what had previously been done on the subject is
contained in Beckmann's Litteratur der alten Raisen (s. 450.); and incidental notices of such passages as fall within
the scope of their works, are found in Schlözer's Allgemeine nordische Geschichte, Thummann's Untersuchungen,
Walch's Allgemeine Bibliothek, Schöning's Gamle nordishe Geographie, Nyerup's Historisk-statistik Skildering i
aeldre og nyere Tider, in Sprengel's Geschichte, and by Wörbs, in Kruse's Deutsche Alterthümer. Professor Ludw.
Giesebrecht published in 1843, at Berlin, a most excellent Wendische Geschichte, in 3 vols. 8vo., but his inquiries
concerning this Periplus (vol. iii. p 290) are the weakest part of his work, having mostly followed blindly the opinions to
which the great fame and political importance of Dahlman had given full credence and authority. He was not aware of
the importance of Alfred's notices for the countries he describes, and particularly for the elucidation of the vexed

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question of Adam of Bremen's Julin and Helmold's Veneta, by an investigation of Othere's Schiringsheal, and which I
endeavoured to point out in a pamphlet I published in the German language, and a copy of which I had the pleasure of
presenting, amongst others, to Professor Dahlman himself at the Germanisten Versammlung at Lübeck in 1847. To
return, however, to the Cwena land and sae, it is evident that the commentators, who are principally induced by their
bearings to Sweon land to look upon the latter as the White Sea, have overlooked the circumstance that the same name
is found earlier as an arm of the Wendel or Mediterranean Sea; and it is evident that one denomination cannot be taken
in a double meaning; and therefore, when we find Alfred following the boundaries of Europe from Greece, "Crecalande
ut on þone Wendelsae Þnord on þone Garsaege pe man Cwen sae haet", it is certain that we have here an arm of the
Wendel Sea (here mistaken for the ocean) that runs from Greece to the north, and it cannot also afterwards be the
White Sea. It will be necessary to bring this, in conformity with the subsequent mention of Cwen-Sae, more to the
northward, which, as I have just said, has been hitherto principally attended to.

In Welsh topography no designation scarcely recurs oftener than Gwent (or, according to Welsh pronunciation, and as
it may be written, Cwent) in various modifications, as Gwyndyd, Gwenedd, Gynneth, Gwynne, &c. &c.; and on the
authority of Gardnor's History of Monmouthshire (Appendix 14.), under which I willingly cloak my ignorance of the
Welsh language, I learn that Gwent or Went is "spelt with or without a G, according to the word that precedes it,
according to certain rules of grammar in the ancient British language, and that Venedotia for North Wales is from the
same root." The author might certainly have said, "the same word Latinized." But exactly the same affinity or identity of
names is found in a locality that suits the place we are in search of: in an arm of the Mediterranean stretching from
Greece northwards; viz. in the Adriatic, which had for its earliest name Sirus Venedicus, translated in modern Italian
into Golfo di Venezia.

Of the multitudes of authorities for this assumption I need only mention Strabo, who calls the first settlers on its northern
end (whence the whole gulph was denominated) [Greek: Everoi]; or Livy, who merely Latinizes the term as Heneti, lib.
i. cap. i., "Antenorem cum multitudine Henetum." With the fable of Antenor and his Trojan colony we have at present
no further relation. The name alone, and its universality at this locality, is all that we require. I shall now show that we
can follow these Veneti (which, that it is a generic name of situation, I must now omit to prove, from the compression
necessary for your miscellany) without a break, in an uninterrupted chain, to the north, and to a position that suits
Alfred's other locality much more fitting, than the White Sea. The province of Vindelicia would carry us to the Boden
See (Lake of Constance), which Pomponius Mela, lib. iii. cap. i. ad finem, calls Lacus Venedicus. This omitting the
modern evidences of this name and province in Windisch-Grätz, Windisch-Feistriz, &c. &c., brings us sufficiently in
contact with the Slavonic and Wendic people of Bohemia to track the line through them to the two Lausitz, where we
are in immediate proximity to the Spree Wald. There the Wends (pronounce Vends) still maintain a distinct and almost
independent community, with peculiar manners, and, it is believed, like the gypsies, an elected or hereditary king; and
where, and round Lüchow, in Hanover, the few remnants of this once potent nation are awaiting their final and gradual
absorption into the surrounding German nations. Whenever, in the north of Germany, a traveller meets with a place or
district ending in wits, itz, pitz, &c., wherever situate, or whatever language the inhabitants speak, he may put it down
as originally Wendish; and the multitude of such terminations will show him how extensively this people was spread over
those countries. Itzenplitz, the name of a family once of great consequence in the Mark of Brandenburg is ultra-
Wendish. It will, therefore, excite no wonder that we find, even in Tacitus, Veneti along their coasts and Ptolemy, who
wrote about a century and a half later than Strabo or Livy, seems to have improved the terminology of the ancients in
the interval; for, speaking of the Sarmatian tribes, he calls these Veneti [Greek: Ouenedai par holon ton Ouenedikon
kolpon]. Here we find the truest guide for the pronunciation, or, rather, for the undigammaising of the Latin V and the
Welsh W, as Ouenetoi, which is proved in many distant and varying localities. St. Ouen, the Welsh Owen and Evan,
and the patron saint of Rouen, no doubt had his name (if he ever existed at all) coined from the French Veneti of
Armorica, amongst which he lived; and when foreigners wish to render the English name Edward as spoken, they write
Edouard and Robert the Wizzard, the Norman conqueror of Sicily and Apulia, has his name transformed, to suit Italian
ears, into Guiscard, and as William into Gulielmi. Thus, therefore, the whole coast of Prussia, from Pomerania, as far,
perhaps, as known, and certainly all the present Prussia Proper, was the Sinus Venedicus, Ptolemy's [Greek: kolpon];
and this was also Alfred's Cwen-Sae, for the north. I admit that when Alfred follows Orosius, he uses Adriatic for the
Golfo de Venezia, but when he gives us his independent researches, he uses an indigenous name. Professor Porthan, of
Abo in Finland, published a Swedish translation, with notes, of the Voyages of Othere and Wulfstan in the Kongl.
Vitterhets Historie och Antiquitet Academiens Handlingar, sjette Delen. Stockholm, 1800, p. 37-106., in which he
expressly couples Finland with Cwenland; and, in fact, considering the identity of Cwen and Ven, and the convertibility
of the F and V in all languages, Ven and Fen and Cwen will all be identical: but I believe he might have taken a hint
from Bussæus, who, in addition to his note at p. 13., gives at p. 22. an extract from the Olaf Tryvassons Saga, where
"Finnland edr Quenland" (Finland or Quenland) are found conjoined as synonyms. Professor Rask, who gives the
original text, and a Danish translation in the Transactions of the Shandinavish Litteratur Selkskab for 1815, as
"Otter og Wulfstans Korte Reideberetninger," &c., though laudatory in the extreme of Porthan, and differing from him
on some minor points, yet fully agrees in finding the Cwen-Sea within the Baltic: and he seems to divide this inland sea
into two parts by a line drawn north and south through Bornholm, of which the eastern part is called the Cwen or
Serminde, or Samatian Sea.

Be that as it may, the above is one of a series of deductions by which I am prepared to prove, that as the land
geography of Germany by Alfred is restricted to the valleys of the Weichsel (Wisle), the Oder, the Elbe, and the Weser,
so the sea voyages are confined to the debouchures of such of these rivers as flow into the Baltic. This would give a

{179}

combined action of purpose to both well suited to the genius of the monarch and the necessities of an infant trade,
requiring to be made acquainted with coasts and countries accessible to their rude navigation and limited commercial
enterprise. So prudent a monarch would never have thought of noting down, for the instruction and guidance of his
subjects and posterity, the account of a voyage which even now, after an interval of ten centuries of continued nautical
improvements, and since the discovery of the compass, is not unattended with danger, nor accomplished in less than a
year's time wasted.

WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.

British Archeological Association.

REMARKABLE PROPOSITION CONCERNING IRELAND.

The following passage, which contains a curious proposition relating to Ireland, will probably be new and interesting to
many readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES," since the book from which I extract it is a scarce one, and not often read.
Among the many various schemes that have of late been propounded for the improvement of our sister country, this is
perhaps not the least remarkable, and shows that the questio vexata, "What is to be done with Ireland?" is one of two
centuries' standing. James Harrington, in his Oceana, the Introduction, (pp. 35, 36., Toland's Edition, 1700), speaking
of Ireland under the name of Panopea, says,—

"Panopea, the soft Mother of a slothful and pusillanimous people, is a neighbor Iland, antiently subjected
by the Arms of Oceana; since almost depopulated for shaking the Yoke, and at length replanted with a
new Race. But (through what virtues of the Soil, or vice of the Air, soever it be), they com still to
degenerat. Wherfore seeing it is neither likely to yield men fit for Arms, nor necessary it should; it had bin
the Interest of Oceana so to have dispos'd of this Province, being both rich in the nature of the Soil, and
full of commodious Ports for Trade, that it might have bin order'd for the best in relation to her Purse,
which, in my opinion (if it had been thought upon in time), might have bin best don by planting it with Jews,
allowing them their own Rights and Laws; for that would have brought then suddenly from all parts of the
World, and in sufficient numbers. And though the Jews be now altogether for merchandize, yet in the Land
of Canaan (except since their exile, from whence they have not bin Landlords), they were altogether for
Agriculture, and there is no cause why a man should doubt, but having a fruitful Country and excellent
Ports too, they would be good at both. Panopea well peopled, would be worth a matter of four millions
of dry rents; that is besides the advantage of the Agriculture and Trade, which, with a Nation of that
Industry, coms at least to as much more. Wherfore Panopea being farm'd out to the Jews and their Heirs
for ever, for the pay of a provincial Army to protect them during the term of seven years, and for two
millions annual Revenue from that time forward, besides the customs which would pay the provincial
Army, would have bin a bargain of such advantage both to them and this Commonwealth, as is not to be
found otherwise by either. To receive the Jews after any other manner into a Commonwealth, were to
maim it; for they of all Nations never incorporat, but taking up the room of a Limb, are no use or office to
the body, while they suck the nourishment which would sustain a natural and useful member."

HENRY KERSLEY

Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone.

NEWS.

A FEW OLD MATERIALS FOR ITS ELUCIDATION.

"Novaum, vulgo Nouvelle. Ugutio: 'Rumor, murmur, quod vulgo dicitur Novum.' Occurit non semel in
Epistolis Marini Sanuti. 'Novis de Obitu Papæ auditis,' in Regesta Universitatis Paris, an. 1394, Spicileg.
Acher., tom vi. p. 60."

So far Ducange, who also refers to the following:

"Supervenerunt nobis Nova certa de morte, videlicet quorundam Nobilium, nobis adhærentium, captorum
per partem dieti Philippi in Britannia, et de speciali Præcepto suo Parisiis ignominiosæ morti traditorum;
nec non de Strage, &c. &c."—Charta an. 1346, apud Rymer, t. v. p. 497.

The derivation of this word has been so strenuously and ably discussed by the contending parties in your pages, that I
have no intention of interfering (non nostrum tantas componere lites) further than to furnish a few materials bearing on
the subject, which may not have come under their notice.

It seems uncertain whether Newes was considered by our ancestors plural or singular. Resolute John Florio is sadly
inconsistent in his use of it: in his World of Wordes, ed. 1598, we have:

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"Nova, newe, fresh, a noueltie, a newe report.

"Novella, a tale, a nouell, a noueltie, a discourse, a newes a message."

In Queen Anna's World of Wordes, 1611:

"Nova, a noueltie, a new report.

"Novella, a tiding, or newes.

"Novellante, a teller of newes or tidings."

Here we have newes treated both as singular and plural! while we have tiding as the singular of tidings, a form
which, from long disuse, would now appear strange to us. In the following extract from Florio's very amusing book of
Dialogues, Second Frutes, 1591, he makes newes decidedly plural:—

"C. What doo they say abroade? what newes have you, Master Tiberio? T. Nothing that I know; can you
tell whether the post be come? C. No, Sir; they saye in the Exchange that the great Turke makes great
preparation to warre with the Persian. T. 'Tis but a deuice; these be newes cast abroade to feede the
common sorte, I doo not beleeue them.... C. Yea, but they are written to verie worshipful merchants. T.
By so much the lesse doo I beleeue them; doo not you know that euerie yeare such newes are spreade
abroade? C. I am almost of your minde, for I seldome see these written reports prove true. T.
Prognostications, newes, deuices, and letters from forraine countries (good Master Cæsar), are but used
as confections to feed the common people withal. C. A man must give no more credite to Exchange and
Powles' newes than to fugitiues promises and plaiers fables."

In Thomas's Principal Rules of the Italian Grammer, with a Dictionarie, printed by Thomas Powell in 1562, but
written in 1548, we have—

"Novella, a tale, a parable, or a neweltee.

"Novelluzza, an ynkelyng.

"Novellare, to tell tales or newes."

In the title page of a rare little volume printed in 1616, we have the adjective new in apposition with the substantive
newes, thus:

"Sir Thomas Overburie his Wife, with new Elegies upon his (now knowne) untimely death. Whereunto are
annexed New Newes and Characters written by himselfe and other learned Gentlemen. Editio septima.
London: printed by Edward Griffin for Lawrence Lisle, 1616, 12mo."

The head of one section is—

"Newes from any-whence, or, Old Truth under a supposal of Noueltie."

Chaucer uses for the newe and of the newe (sc. fashion) elliptically. Tiding or Tidings, from the A.-S. Tid-an,
evidently preceded newes in the sense of inteligence, and may not newes therefore be an elliptic form of new-tidinges?
Or, as our ancestors had newelté and neweltés, can it have been a contraction of the latter? If we are to suppose with
Mr. Hickson that news was "adopted bodily into the language," we must not go to the High-German, from which our
early language has derived scarcely anything, but to the Neder-Duytsch, from the frequent and constant communication
with the Low Countries in the sixteenth century. The following passages from Kilian's Thesaurus, printed by Plantin, at
Antwerp, in 1573, are to the purpose, and may serve to show how the word was formed:—

"Nieuwtijdinge, oft wat nieuws, Nouvelles, Nuntius vel Nuntium."

"Seght ons wat nieuws, Dicte nous quelquechose de nouveau, Recita nobis aliquid novi."

"Nieuwsgierich, nygierich, Convoiteux de nouveautez, Cupidus novitatis."

I trust these materials may be acceptable to your able correspondents, and tend to the resolution of the question at
issue.

S.W. SINGER.

Mickleham, August 6. 1850.

"News," Origin of the Word (Vol. i., pp. 270. 369. 487.; vol. ii., pp. 23. 81. 106.).—Your correspondents who have
written upon this subject may now have seen the following note in Zimperley's Encyclopædia, p. 472.:—

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"The original orthography was newes, and in the singular. Johnson has, however, decided that the word
newes is a substantive without a singular, unless it be considered as singular. The word new, according to
Wachter, is of very ancient use, and is common to many nations. The Britons, and the Anglo-Saxons, had
the word, though not the thing. It was first printed by Caxton in the modern sense, in the Siege of Rhodes,
which was translated by John Kay, the Poet Laureate, and printed by Caxton about the year 1490. In the
Assembly of Foulis, which was printed by William Copland in 1530, there is the following exclamation:—

"'Newes! newes! newes! have ye ony newes?'

"In the translation of the Utopia, by Raphe Robinson, citizien and goldsmythe, which was imprinted by
Abraham Nele in 1551, we are told, 'As for monsters, because they be no newes, of them we were
nothynge inquysitive.' Such is the rise, and such the progress of the word news, which, even in 1551, was
still printed newes!"

W.J.

Havre.

FOLK LORE.

Charming for Warts (Vol. i., p. 19.; vol. ii. p. 150.).—In Lord Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum, or a Natural History in
Ten Centuries (No. 997.), the great philosopher gives a minute account of the practice, from personal experience, in
the following words:—

"The taking away of warts, by rubbing them with somewhat that afterwards is put to waste and consume,
is a common experiment; and I do apprehend it the rather, because of mine own experience. I had from
my childhood a wart upon one of my fingers; afterwards, when I was about sixteen years old, being then
at Paris, there grew upon both my hands a number of warts (at least an hundred), in a month's space; the
English Ambassador's lady, who was a woman far from superstition, told me one day she would help me
away with my warts; whereupon she got a piece of lard with the skin on, and rubbed the warts all over
with the fat side, and amongst the rest, that wart which I had from my childhood; then she nailed the piece
of lard with the fat towards the sun, upon a post of her chamber window, which was to the south. The
success was, that within five weeks' space all the warts went quite away, and that wart which I had so
long endured for company; but at the rest I did little marvel, because they came in a short time and might
go away in a short time again, but the going of that which had stayed so long doth yet stick with me. They
say the like is done by rubbing of warts with a green elder stick, and then burying the stick to rot in muck."

J.M.B.

MINOR NOTES.

Capture of Henry the Sixth.—At Waddington in Mytton stands a pile of building known as the "Old Hall," once
antique, but now much indeed despoiled of its beauty, where for some time the unfortunate king, Henry the Sixth, was
concealed after the fatal battle of Hexham, in Northumberland. Quietly seated one day at dinner, "in company with Dr.
Manting, Dean of Windsor, Dr. Bedle, and one Ellarton," his enemies came upon him by surprise, but he privately
escaped by a back door, and fled to Brungerley stepping-stones (still partially visible in a wooden frame), where he was
taken prisoner, "his legs tied together under the horse's belly," and thus disgracefully conveyed to the Tower in London.
He was betrayed by one of the Talbots of Bashall Hall, who was then high-sheriff for the West Riding. This ancient
house or hall is still in existence, but now entirely converted into a building for farming purposes: "Sic transit gloria
mundi." Near the village of Waddington, there is still to be seen a meadow known by the name of "King Henry's
Meadow."

In Baker's Chronicle, the capture of the king is described as having taken place "in Lincolnshire," but this is evidently
incorrect; it is Waddington, in Mytton, West Yorkshire.

CLERICUS CRAVENSIS.

The New Temple (Vol. ii., p. 103.).—As your correspondent is interested in a question connected with the occupants
of the New Temple at the beginning of the fourteenth century, I venture to state, at the hazard of its being of any use to
him, that I have before me the transcript of a deed, dated at Canterbury, the 16th of July, 1293, by which two
prebendaries of the church of York engage to pay to the Abbot of Newenham, in the county of Devon, the sum of 200
marks sterling, at the New Temple in London, in accordance with a bond entered into by them before G. de Thornton
and others, the king's justices.

S.S.S.

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QUERIES.

ESSAYES OF CERTAIN PARADOXES: POEM ON NOTHING.

Who was the author of a thin 4to. volume with the above title, printed for Tho. Thorpe, 1616? The contents are, "The
Praise of K. Richard the Third—The French Poetes—Nothing—That it is good to be in Debt."

The late Mr. Yarnold has a MS. copy of the "Praise of K. Richard," to which was prefixed the following dedication:—

"TO THE HONOURABLE SIR HENRY NEVILL, KNIGHTE."

"I am bolde to adventure to your honors viewe this small portion of my privatt labors, as an earnest peny
of my love, beinge a mere Paradoxe in prayse of a most blame-worthie and condemned Prince, Kinge
Richard the Third; who albeit I shold guilde with farre better termes of eloquence then I have don, and
freate myself to deathe in pursuite of his commendations, yet his disgrace beinge so publicke, and the
worlde so opinionate of his misdoings, as I shold not be able so farre to justifie him as they to condemne
him. Yet that they may see what may be saide, and to shew how farre they haue mispraysed his vertues,
this following Treatise shall make manyfest. Your honour may peruse and censure yt at your best leisure,
and though yt be not trickt up wth elegance of phrase, yet may it satisfye a right curious judgmente, yf the
reasons be considered as they ought. But, howsoever, yf you please to accepte it, I shall thinke my labors
well bestowed; who, both in this and what ells may, devote myself to your honour, and rest,

"Your honours most affectionat servant,

"HEN. W."

The praise of Nothing is very well versified from the Latin of Passerat, whose verses Dr. Johnson thought worthy of a
place in his Life of Lord Rochester. Besides Rochester's seventeen stanzas "Upon Nothing," there appears to have
been another copy of verses on this fertile subject; for Flecknoe, in his Epigrams of All Sorts, 1671, has "Somewhat
to Mr. J.A. on his excellent poem of Nothing." Is anything known of this Nothing?

S.W. SINGER.

Mickleham, July 29. 1850.

MINOR QUERIES.

Papers of Perjury.—In Leicester's Commonwealth occurs the following passage:—

"The gentlemen were all taken and cast into prison, and afterwards were sent down to Ludlow, there to
wear papers of perjury."

Can any of your readers refer me to a graphic account of the custom of perjurers wearing papers denoting their crime,
to which I suppose this passage alludes?

S.R.

Church Rates.—CH. would be obliged to any of your readers who could refer him to the volume of either the
Gentleman's or the British Magazine which contains some remarks on the article on Church Rates in Knight's
Political Dictionary, and on Cyric-sceat.

St. Thomas of Lancaster's Accomplices.—In No. 15. I find an extract from Rymer, by MR. MONCKTON
MILNES, relative to some accomplices of St. Thomas of Lancaster, supposed to have worked miracles.—Query,
Was "The Parson of Wigan" one of these accomplices, and what was his name? Was he ever brought to trial for aiding
the Earl, preaching sedition in the parish church of Wigan, and offering absolution to all who would join the standard of
the barons? and what was the result of that trial—death or pardon?

CLERICUS CRAVENSIS.

Prelates of France.—P.C.S.S. is desirous to know where he can meet with an accurate list of the Archbishops and
Bishops of France (or more properly of their Sees) under the old régime.

Lord Chancellor's Oath.—The gazette of the 16th July notified that the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wilde, in council, took
the oath of Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland on the 15th inst.; and the same gazette announced the
direction of the Queen that letters patent be passed granting the dignity of baron to the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wilde,
Knt., Lord Chancellor of that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Great Britain.

Why, when he is only Chancellor of Great Britain, should he take the oath of Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland?

J.

Mediæval Nomenclature.—In what work is to be obtained the best information explanatory of the nomenclature of
the useful arts in mediæval times?

δ.

Sir Christopher Sibthorp.—Can any of your readers furnish me with information as to the ancestry of Sir Christopher
Sibthorp, whose name appears in the title-page of the following tract: A friendly Advertisement to the pretended
Catholics of Ireland, by Christopher Sibthorp, Knt., one of H.M. Justices of his Court of Chief Place in Ireland,
1622, Dublin and also as to the crest, arms, and motto borne by him.

DE BALDOC.

Alarm (Vol. ii., p. 151.).—The derivation of alarm, and the French alarme, from à l'arme, which your correspondent
M. has reproduced, has always struck me as unsatisfactory, and as of the class of etymologies suspiciously ingenious. I
do not venture to pronounce that the derivation is wrong: I merely wish to ventilate a doubt through "NOTES AND
QUERIES," and invite some of your more learned readers to lily to decide the question.

Of the identity of the words alarm and alarum there is no doubt. The verb alarm is spelt alarum in old writers, and I
have seen it so spelt in manuscripts of Charles II.'s reign, but unfortunately have not taken a "Note." Dr. Johnson says
alarum is a corruption of alarm. Corruption, however, usually shortens words. I cannot help having a notion that
alarum is the original word; and, though I may probably be showing great ignorance in doing so, I venture to propound
the following Queries:—

1. How far back can the word alarum be traced in our language, and how far back alarm?

2. Can it be ascertained whether the French took alarme from our alarm, or we alarm from them?

3. Can any explanation be given of alarum, supposing it to be the original word? Is it a word imitative of sound?

A l'arme, instead of aux armes, adds to the suspiciousness of this derivation.

CH.

REPLIES.

SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF "DELIGHTED."

Although Dr. Kennedy does not think I have discovered the source from whence Shakspeare's word delighted is
derived, I am gratified to find that he concurs with me in drawing a distinction between this and the more common
word. His failure to convince me is a source almost of regret, so happy do I regard the derivation he proposes in the
last passage cited. But in the passage from Measure for Measure, it does not appear to me to express the sense which
I deduce from the context; and as I look upon the word in question as the same in each of the three passages, I feel
more inclined to adhere to my view, that it is a word of English manufacture, according to the analogy referred to. I
express my opinion with hesitation and there can be no doubt the question is deserving of full and attentive
consideration.

Strengthened, however, in my main purpose, which was to show that Shakspeare did not use delighted in the ordinary
sense of highly gratified, I am better prepared to meet MR. HALLIWELL. This gentleman does me no more than
justice in the remark, not expressed, though, I hope, implied, that I would not knowingly make use of an offensive
expression towards him or any living man; and I appreciate the courtesy with which he has sweetened the
uncomplimentary things he has felt constrained to say of me. I trust it will be found that I can repay his courtesy and
imitate his forbearance. As a preliminary remark, however, I must say that MR. HALLIWELL, in his haste, has
confounded the "cool impertinence" for which I censured one editor, with the "cool correction" which was made by
another; and, moreover, has referred the remark to Measure for Measure, which I applied to the notes to the passage
in Othello. As I have not yet learned to regard the term "delightful" as an active participle, it is evident that, however
"cool" I may consider the correction, I have not called it an "impertinence." But he has no mind that I should escape so
easily; and therefore, like a true knight-errant, he adopts the cause without hesitation, as though to be first satisfied of its
goodness would be quite inconsistent in its champion.

When I am charged with an "entire want of acquaintance with the grammatical system" employed by Shakspeare, I
might take exception to the omission of the words "as understood by Mr. Halliwell," this gentleman assuming the very
point in question between us. I believe he has paid particular attention to this subject; but he must not conclude that all
who presume to differ from him "judge Shakspeare's grammar by Cobbett or Murray." And if I were disposed to

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indulge in as sweeping an expression, I should say that the remark excites a suspicion of the writer's want of
acquaintance with the spirit of Shakspeare's works. I do not think so, though I think MR. HALLIWELL has formed his
opinion hastily; and I think, moreover, that before I have ended, I shall convince him that it would not have been amiss
had he exercised a little more reflection ere he began. In the passage in Othello, I object to the substitution of
delighting or delightful for delighted, as weak epithets, and such as I do not believe that Shakespeare would have
used. It was not as a schoolmaster or grammarian, but in reference to the peculiar fitness and force of his expressions,
and his perfect acquaintance with the powers of the English language, and his mastery over it, that I called Shakespeare
its greatest master.

But to return to the first passage I cited—that from Measure for Measure,—MR. HALLIWELL will be surprised to
find that in the only remark I made upon it as it stands he actually agrees with me. I said that the passage "in our sense
of the term" is unintelligible. I still say so; and he who attempts to mend it, or modernise the form, says so too. The
question next arises, Does he not mean no system, when he says system? Otherwise, why does he say that Shakspeare
uses the passive for the active participle, when he explains the word not by the active participle, but by an adjective of
totally different meaning? Is it not more likely that MR. HALLIWELL may have misunderstood Shakspeare's system,
than that the latter should have used intelligible words, and precise forms of words, so at random? And, moreover, does
not the critic confound two meanings of the word delightful; the one obsolete, full of delight, the other the common
one, giving delight, or gratifying?

Now by a violent figure which Shakspeare sometimes uses, delighted may mean delightful in the former sense;
perhaps, rather, filled with delight. The word then would be formed directly from the noun, and must not be regarded
as a participle at all, but rather an ellipsis, from which the verb (which may be represented by give, fill, endow, &c.) is
omitted. Take, as an instance, this passage in Measure for Measure:—

"Clau. Death is a fearful thing!
"Isa. And shamed life a hateful."

The meaning here is not life ashamed, but life covered with shame. In this sense MR. HALLIWELL, apparently
without knowing why, has adopted the term delightful; but then the two succeeding words of his explanation, "sweet,
pleasant", he would appear to have taken at random from a dictionary, forgetting that he was not using the word in its
ordinary sense; for it is not possible that he can suppose Shakspeare to have used the word in the sense of the active
participle. Now, though I do not think this at all the expression that Shakspeare would use, it is undoubtedly allowable
as a general characteristic; but the word actually used would appear to imply the result of a particular action, which
would have been productive of anything but delight. In short, as we are agreed that the word delighted in the passage
in question in its present sense is unintelligible, so also are we, I think, agreed that the substitute, if any, must be used in
a passive sense.

Now, with regard to the first instance furnished by MR. HALLIWELL of the use of the passive for the active participle,
if I were sure that the delinquent were well out of hearing, and not likely "to rise again and push us from our stools," I
should be disposed to repeat the charge of impertinence against the editor who altered "professed" to "professing". The
word professed is one of common use, and in the present instance perfectly intelligible. "To your bosom, professed to
entertain so much love and care for our father, I commit him," seems to express the sense of the passage: a doubt is
implied by the expression, but there is a directness of insult in the term professing quite inconsistent with the character
of Cordelia.

"Becomed love" is love suited or fitted to the occasion. The use of the passive participle is every way more appropriate
than that of the active, though the latter is more common now.

In the next instance, I have to observe that there is no such verb as to guile. Guile is a noun; and "guiled shore" is
guile-covered, or charactered shore. According to this rule, the modern word talented, that is, talent-endowed, has
been formed, it not having been considered that licences are allowed in poetry that are unsuited to ordinary language.

The passage next referred to is conditional, and I regard the use of the passive participle here, too, as correct.

I have thus reduced MR. HALLIWELL'S list to that number which usually forms the exception rather than the rule; and
if accident, misprint, error in copying, or other special circumstance be not held sufficient to account for the single
remaining instance, I have then only to say that I prefer deformed to deforming, as an epithet applied disparagingly to
Time's hand as more in accordance with Shakspeare's practice, who was not in the habit of repeating the same idea,
which, in the latter case, would occur again in the word "defeatures" in the following line.

MR. HALLIWELL may, doubtless find other instances, perhaps more felicitous than these; at present, all I can say is
that he has failed to show that the use of the passive for the active participle was common with Shakspeare. As to other
variations between the grammatical usage of Shakspeare's day and that of our own, I call assure him that I am not quite
so ignorant of the fact as he imagines.

SAMUEL HICKSON

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August 1. 1850.

ENGLISH COMEDIANS IN GERMANY.

I am glad to be enabled to reply to MR. BOLTON CORNEY'S Query (Vol. i., p. 439.) respecting a German book of
plays.

The learned illustrator of the Curiosities of Literature would find the information he desires in the Vorrath zur
Geschichte der deutschen dramatischen Dichtkunst of the formerly celebrated J. Christoph Gottsched (Leipzig,
1767-69, 2 vols. 8vo.). But as this book, now somewhat neglected, would perhaps be difficult to be found even in the
British Museum, I will transcribe the contents of the Schau-Bühne englischer und franzõsischer Comõdianten auff
welcher werden vorgestellt die schõnsten und neuesten Comõdien, so vor wenig Jahren in Frankreich,
Teutschland und andern Orten ... seynd agirt und präsentirt worden.—Frankfurt, 1670, 3 vols. 8vo.

Vol. I.—

1. Amor der Arzt.
2. Die Comödia ohne Comödia.
3. Die köstliche Lächerlichkeit.
4. Der Hahnrey in der Einbildung.
5. Die Hahnreyinn nach der Einbildung.
6. Die Eyfreude mit ihr Selbst.
7. Antiochus, ein Tragicomödia.
8. Die buhlhaffte Mutter.
9. Damons Triumph-Spiel.

Vol. II.—

10. Von Sidonia und Theugene.
11. Der Verliebtell Kllnstgriffe.
12. Lustiges Pickelharings-Spiel, darum er mit
einem Stein gar artige Possen macht.
13. Von Fortunato seinem Wünschhütlein und
Seckel.
14. Der unbesonnene Liebhaber.
15. Die grossmüthige Thaliklea.

Vol. III.—

16. Vom Könige Ahasvero und Esther und dem
hoffartigen Hamon.
17. Vom verlohrnen Sohn, in welchem die Verzweifflung
und Hoffnung gar artig introducirt werden.
18. Von Königs Mantalors unrechtmässiger Liebe
und derselben Straffe.
19. Der Geitzige.
20. Von der Aminta und Sylvia.
21. Macht den kleinen Knaben Cupidinis.
22. George Damlin, oder der verwirrte Ehmann.

Some years before, another similar collection had been published. The first vol. printed in 1620, and reprinted in 1624,
has this title:

"Englische Comedien und Tragedien, d. i. Sehr schöne, herrliche und ausserlosene, geist- und weltliche
Comedi- und Tragedi-Spiel (sic), sampt dem Pickelhering, welche wegen ihrer artigen Inventionen
kurtzweiligen auch theils wahrhafftigen Geschichte halbet, von den Engelländern in Deutschland (I beg
to notice these words) an Königlichen, Chur- und Furstlichen Höfen, auch in vornehmen Reichs- See- und
Handel Städten seynd agirt und gehalten worden, und zuvor nie im Druck aussgangen."

The volume contains 10 plays. The 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10, are the 16, 17, 13, 10, and 12, of the collection of 1670. The
other five are the following:

4. Eine schöne lustige Comödia von Jemand und
Niemand.
7. Tragödia von Julio und Hippolyto.
8. Eine sehr klägliche Tragödia von Tito Andromico

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und hoffertigen Kayserinn, darinnen denkwürdigen
Actiones zu befinden.
9. Ein lustig Pickelherings-Spiel von der schönen
Mario und alten Hanrey.

The second volume was published in 1630, under the title Lieberkampff, oder ander Theil der Englischen
Comödien: it contains 8 plays. The 1st is the 21st of the collection of 1670, with this addition:

Die Personen der Lustspiels sind: 1. Venus, die stumme Person; 2. Cupido; 3. Jucunda, Jungfraw; 4.
Floretus, Liebhaber; 5. Balendus, Betrieger; 6. Corcillana, Kuplerin; 7. Hans Worst.

The 2d is the 20th of the same collection, "mit 9 Personen, worunter die lustige Person Schräm heisst."

3. Comoedia von Prob getrewer Lieb, mit 11 Personen, worunter auch eine allegorische, der Traum ist.

The 4th is the 18th, "mit 9 Personen, worunter die lustige Schampilasche Lean Potage heisst."

The four remaining are operas, without particular titles.

Ebert (Bibliogr. Lexicon, N. 5064.), speaking of these collections, says, "the plays they are composed of are not
translations from the English," but, "as it appears," German original works.

I am at a loss to understand how that bibliographer, generally so exact, did not recognise at least five comedies of
Molière. MR. BOLTON CORNEY will, I wish and hope, point out the originals—English, Italian, and, I suppose,
Spanish—of some others.

If you think proper to make use of the above, I entreat you, for the sake of your readers, to correct my bad English,
and to consider my communication only as a token of the gratification I have found in your amusing and useful "NOTES
AND QUERIES."

D.L.

Ancien Membre de la Société des Bibliophiles.

Béthune, July 31. 1850.

P.S.—The Query (Vol. i., p. 185.) concerning the name of the Alost, Louvain, and Antwerp printer, Martens or
Mertens, is settled in the note, p. 68., of Recherches sur la Vie et les Editions de Thierry Martens (Martinus,
Martens), par J. De Gand, 8vo. Alost, 1845. I am ready to send a copy of the note if it is required.

[We have also received a reply to MR. CORNEY'S Query from MR. ASHER of Berlin, who refers
for particulars of this interesting collection to Tieck's Preface to his Alt-Deutsche Theater. We
propose shortly returning to the curious fact of English comedians performing in Germany at the
close of the sixteenth and commencement of the seventeenth centuries: a subject which has several
times been discussed and illustrated in the columns of our valuable contemporary The Athenæum.]

ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE.

(Vol. ii., p. 154.)

This paradox, whilst one of the oldest on record (being attributed by Aristotle to Zeus Eleates, B.C. 500), is one of the
most perplexing, upon first presentation to the mind, that can be selected from the most ample list. Its professed object
was to disprove the phenomenon of motion; but its real one, to embarrass an opponent. It has always attracted the
attention of logicians; and even to them it has often proved embarrassing enough. The difficulty does not lie in proving
that the conclusion is absurd, but in showing where the fallacy lies. From not knowing the precise kind of information
required by [Greek: Idiotaes], I am unwilling to trespass on your valuable space by any irrelevant discussion, and
confine myself to copying a very judicious note from Dr. Whateley's Logic, 9th edit. p. 373.

"This is one of the sophistical puzzles noticed by Aldrich, but he is not happy in his attempt at a solution.
He proposes to remove the difficulty by demonstrating that in a certain given time, Achilles would
overtake the tortoise; as if any one had ever doubted that. The very problem proposed, is to surmount the
difficulty of a seeming demonstration of a thing palpably impossible; to show that it is palpably impossible,
is no solution of the problem.

"I have heard the present example adduced as a proof that the pretensions of logic are futile, since (it was
said) the most perfect logical demonstration may lead from true premises to an absurd conclusion. The
reverse is the truth; the example before us furnishes a confirmation of the utility of an acquaintance with the
syllogistic form, in which form the pretended demonstration in question cannot be exhibited. An

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attempt to do so will evince the utter want of connection between the premises and the conclusion."

What the Archbishop says is true, and it disposes of the question as one of "Formal Logic:" but yet the form of the
sophism is so plausible, that it imposes with equal force on the "common sense" of all those who repose their
conclusions upon the operations of that faculty. With them a different procedure is necessary; and I suspect that if any
one of the most obstinate advocates of the sufficiency of common sense for the "balancing of evidence" were to attempt
the explanation of a hundred fallacies that could be presented to him, he would be compelled to admit that a more
powerful and a more accurate machine would be of advantage to him in accomplishing his task. This machine the
syllogism supplies.

The discussion of Gregory St. Vincent will be found at pages 101-3. of his Opus Geometricum, Antw., 1647 fol. The
principle is the same as that which Aldrich afterwards gave, as above referred...